Saturday, February 10, 2007

Supergirl/Batgirl

I tried to like Kara 2.0, I really did.

But the suckyness wore me down. Every time I was on the point of giving it up as a bad job, I'd hear that the current writer or artist was going to be replaced and I gave it one more go. I did actually quit after #12 when it became apparent that Joe Kelly was too little, too late, and we were stuck with Ian Churchill. I only read #14 because it featured Batgirl.

This was a mistake. The in-joke of having Kara dress in Linda/animated Supergirl's white costume was painfully unfunny, and simply served to remind long time readers how this previous wearer of the cape had been quietly erased from continuity - even Pantha went out fighting. Ian Churchill's big chin/snap like a twig ankles style seemed worse than ever, but maybe it's just because I've been reading too many comics where the characters have less ludicrous proportions.

But Batgirl?

Wait, I think I've got it. It's that multiverse thing again, isn't it. I mean I totally called the two Luthors before it was revealed, so maybe they are doing the same trick again. Originally there was good Batgirl. Then we were told that she went bad (Robin #151) to lead the League of Assassins and get revenge on her father because she found she had a sister (no, it doesn't make any sense), and stopped wearing the costume. But in Teen Titans #43 we are given a whole different explanation about her being mind controlled by Deathstroke. No mention of the League, and she's in costume. In Supergirl #14 she's back to running the League but she is wearing her costume. There's at least two different Batgirls here. Possibly three.

Oh, and there's apparently a story running in one of the Batman titles where the League is being run by someone else. Does anyone at DC talk to anyone else at all?

You think? I haven't seen any explanation why a person who has never lived on Earth immediately starts living the life of a cliche mallrat, or why a 16 year old girl is left to fend for herself on a world entirely alien to her.

In Kara's first appearance, Clark was actually severely over-protective of her to the point that he kept her locked inside the Fortress of Solitude "to protect her from the outside world".

Given that she didn't have control of her powers at that point, it would have been a fair point for him to be protecting the world from HER. She did cause quite a bit of damage in Gotham when she got out of her ship.

And then when Diana found out what Clark was up to, she said "that's no place for a young girl" and insisted that Clark let her stay on Paradise Island, where Kara started getting a crash course in Amazon training... which ended in Clark flying down and breaking swords whenever anyone got close to hitting Kara. Never mind that she couldn't actually be hurt.

Then Kara got kidnapped by Darksied, brainwashed into becoming one of Granny's furries... and to make a long story short, she got better, came back to Earth and became Supergirl.

I wrote a whole article on this and I suspect that Loeb wrote this as a metaphor for the conflict of your average American teenage girl growing up.

Kara = Girl becoming a woman

Clark = Overprotective father (seals Kara off from the world "for her own good")

Diana = Overbearing mother (forces Kara into role she thinks is best for her without asking Kara what she wants)

And Kara has not been left to fend for herself entirely. She just asked for some space and time to try and figure out who she is and Clark, under protest, agreed to this.

She's been showing having been checking in with Bruce on a semi-regular basis (no shock there - he's the only one of the Trinity who ever tried just talking to her) and she is rooming with Wonder Girl.

And to give Kelly props for one thing (though I'd do it for more than a few) - I do like the idea of Cassie and Kara being friends.

Given the fact that Kara's first real experience to Earth culture was the Amazons (and don't get me started on the implications of Kara's being introduced to an island of eternally young and beautiful and scantiilly clad women and being told "this is what Earth women should be like"), it's only natural that the two of them should bond in the wake of the Amazons disappearing.